So recently I've been thinking of my family (brothers and parents) and wondering how to track all this back to a cause. The cause of my family's major dysfunction. Let's start with my mother. I love her dearly and believe that she is a very strong woman despite her attempts to appear weak and vulnerable. She was born and raised in central NY in 1940. She was born to a farmer's daughter and a ladder maker's son. Now I believe that many things are hereditary. My maternal grandmother was fairly typical that I know of but she did have a sister with early onset dementia I believe. It's hard to know exactly as I was a little girl when she lost herself.
My maternal grandfather used to sell things at fleamarkets out of his gray panel van (kind of like a UPS truck but probably a 1970's version). He would buy and then sell, buy and then sell again. He had shelves in his panel van where he would store his goods in old suitcases with masking tape labels. Stacks upon stacks of them. He also had shed upon shed at his house. My grandparents had a cute little ranch style house in this little town of North Rose. My grandfather built little sheds that linked to other little connecting sheds where he stored his fleamarket goods, tools, books, tobacco, and god knows what else.
Now I don't have any real history on my father's family. I do know that his father was raised in the NYC area being the nephew of Fredrick Aldo Otto Schwarz (FAO Schwarz, you know the toy store?). His mother was born and raised in Northern Virginia. I know she was one of many children and possibly the oldest? Like I said I don't know much. Now my father never has been one for sensitive comments or actions let alone a communicator about much. He is currently very much on the surface and I believe he probably has been that way for a very long time. He seems to be cut off from reality and likes to live in a fantasy world. He was raised very wealthy and now is quite poor living off of social security and disability on like $1,000 a month.
More to come later....... time to figure out dinner and put the freshly made peach jam away!
Sunday, September 20, 2009
the Peach Jam Adventure!
Santequin, Utah has the best peaches in the state! Grandpa V's fruit stand is a family operated stand that sells peaches and much more! Every year (for the last 2) I go and buy peaches and bring them home. What I do after that depends on a few things. Sometimes I get right to it and bottle up the peaches and make jam, other times (not in the last 2 years but with many things that involve produce to be processed) I leave it to rot in my kitchen! Today I began the process of making jam. So far so good but I've only just begun by blanching the peaches to get the skins off! We'll see how things go the rest of the day and how my motivation holds out!
Okay, so it's hours later and I've bottled 14 and a half, half pints of jam and have another 7-8 more ready to cook! I have eaten ramen and peanut m&m's for lunch and am ready for something else! Definitely not a peach! Oh, the buzzer is ringing to tell me that some of my jam is ready to pull out of the water!
Okay, so it's hours later and I've bottled 14 and a half, half pints of jam and have another 7-8 more ready to cook! I have eaten ramen and peanut m&m's for lunch and am ready for something else! Definitely not a peach! Oh, the buzzer is ringing to tell me that some of my jam is ready to pull out of the water!
Saturday, September 19, 2009
My spoiled dogs!
Myself and the dogs one day camping up the mountain! I love smartfood popcorn and the dogs love anything I'm eating!
About Us......1st posting
Well, today is the first day of this blog. I've been thinking of doing this for a while and, well, here we are. Life at the Trimmer house is eventful at times and pretty uneventful at other times! We are approaching middle agedness and it scares the hell out of me for many reasons! I am young at heart, my husband not so much:) We are 37 and 38 and live in Southern Utah.
I was born and raised in upstate NY and he in Southern Utah. I am have always been a small town girl at heart and experience and he a Western small town, country farm boy. He grew up hunting, fishing, trapping, and farming. He is the only boy and has one older sister. He grew up poor but rich in Western culture and experience. I grew up on the banks of Lake Ontario with 2 older brothers and a younger brother. We as a family were poor as well but learning was very important to both of our parents so that we could be whatever we wanted to be. I spent my summers swimming at the lake, playing at the lake and riding my bike through town exploring with my friends as we went. My parents were not good communicators and they passed that trait to all of their children. We didn't learn and weren't expected to talk about what was going on with us on the inside (I continue to struggle with this and it causes me many problems!) My parents ended up splitting up and after 23 years have never divorced! My parents have issues and I spend my adult life trying to keep myself from becoming them as I think we all do! I don't know how well I'm winning that battle!
So, my husband and I have been married for 7 years now and have 3 dogs at our house and 3 cats as well. I say "at our house" because my husband has 12 hound dogs that he uses to catch mountain lions and bears at my in-laws farm. I am a Special Education teacher and director and my husband works for the county as a maintenance and custodial supervisor. We don't have any children but have investigated ways to have them. I was diagnosed as a juvenile diabetic when I was 11 and the doctors said about 5 years ago that it probably wasn't smart that I carry a child. They said I could lose my kidneys, being a long term diabetic makes it so that a fetus could have problems related to my kidneys too. Not such good luck! We researched (okay, I did!) having someone be a gestational surrogate, where our fetus would be created in a petrie dish and then implanted into someone else to carry. Crazy huh? We had 2 possibilities and neither of them worked out for us. It could have potentially cost $100,000 and with no guarantees of a baby so we decided not to go that route. Sooooo we would like to still have a child but it costs money to adopt a baby too! We are pretty tight financially and are struggling to start the process. Hopefully it can happen for us before we get too much older because we are good people and would make good parents!
I was born and raised in upstate NY and he in Southern Utah. I am have always been a small town girl at heart and experience and he a Western small town, country farm boy. He grew up hunting, fishing, trapping, and farming. He is the only boy and has one older sister. He grew up poor but rich in Western culture and experience. I grew up on the banks of Lake Ontario with 2 older brothers and a younger brother. We as a family were poor as well but learning was very important to both of our parents so that we could be whatever we wanted to be. I spent my summers swimming at the lake, playing at the lake and riding my bike through town exploring with my friends as we went. My parents were not good communicators and they passed that trait to all of their children. We didn't learn and weren't expected to talk about what was going on with us on the inside (I continue to struggle with this and it causes me many problems!) My parents ended up splitting up and after 23 years have never divorced! My parents have issues and I spend my adult life trying to keep myself from becoming them as I think we all do! I don't know how well I'm winning that battle!
So, my husband and I have been married for 7 years now and have 3 dogs at our house and 3 cats as well. I say "at our house" because my husband has 12 hound dogs that he uses to catch mountain lions and bears at my in-laws farm. I am a Special Education teacher and director and my husband works for the county as a maintenance and custodial supervisor. We don't have any children but have investigated ways to have them. I was diagnosed as a juvenile diabetic when I was 11 and the doctors said about 5 years ago that it probably wasn't smart that I carry a child. They said I could lose my kidneys, being a long term diabetic makes it so that a fetus could have problems related to my kidneys too. Not such good luck! We researched (okay, I did!) having someone be a gestational surrogate, where our fetus would be created in a petrie dish and then implanted into someone else to carry. Crazy huh? We had 2 possibilities and neither of them worked out for us. It could have potentially cost $100,000 and with no guarantees of a baby so we decided not to go that route. Sooooo we would like to still have a child but it costs money to adopt a baby too! We are pretty tight financially and are struggling to start the process. Hopefully it can happen for us before we get too much older because we are good people and would make good parents!
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